The British ambassador could visit the emperor of China on a pagan festival, but there was no need for London to do so. The Lantern Festival was a legal holiday in China, and everyone could rest for a day. The British Parliament was having a heated debate.
"… China's water, gas, and electricity are all monopolized by state-owned companies. The same goes for food. China buys food uniformly and sells it to various grain stores through a unified sales channel. This is a very efficient way of doing things. The producers of the whole country no longer need to painfully look for consumers, and the food supply is no longer a place where speculators can stir up trouble. It has become the welfare of the country … "
The MP was talking about the adjustment of the government's functions. Although the MP who represented the interests of the big landowners and grain merchants looked at the MP with disdain, the MP from other industries listened to him. In recent years, the study of China's social system had once again become a very important topic in Europe. The last time there was a craze for China was during the Enlightenment before the French Revolution.
The MP did not talk about nationalization of land, nor did he talk about eliminating the landowners, gentry, and nobles. The MP only proposed the establishment of state-owned enterprises. The country would restrict basic daily necessities such as water and electricity to reduce the cost of living of the British subjects. In this way, the British subjects could at least survive through the economic crisis.
After the Councilman expressed his opinion, another Councilman shouted, "Councilman Russell is a pervert!"
The MP Russell was not angry after hearing this. He calmly replied, "I'm just a socialist, not a traitor!"
The next MP to take the stage asked, "Gentlemen, why do you think China is expanding so quickly?"
These words were actually self-answered. The congressman pretended to be polite and waited for five seconds before continuing, "China's colonial policy is different from ours. Every piece of land China occupied soon had a large number of Chinese immigrants. The number of these immigrants greatly exceeded the local people, so the colonies became China's territory. What about the British Empire? Our colony is still a colony. Because China has a large population, more than 500 million people, they can migrate wherever they want. "
After that, the MP took out a small paper package and held it in his hand. "Do you know what this is?"
Some MP did not know, some MP looked at it carefully for a while, and some even laughed out loud.
"That's right, everyone didn't see wrong! These are the products that China has been selling to us in large quantities recently. Condoms! "the senator yelled out the answer. This caused an uproar in the council. All the councilors knew about this thing, and many of them had even used it before. Unlike the rubber covers used in Europe and the United States, thin latex covers felt better and were much cheaper. In this period of economic crisis where entertainment was scarce, the working class needed joy, but they did not dare to have children. This kind of cheap and high-quality product sold very well.
Such a joyous matter could not be discussed in the parliament, so everyone suspected that Senator Yan had gone mad. At the very least, his mental state was very unstable. The Speaker held the hammer that was used to preside over the meeting and wondered if he should ask the Senator to step down. His words were too outrageous.
Senator Yan didn't care what everyone thought of him. He continued, "The Chinese's trick is to reduce the population of the British Empire. On the other hand, China's population and territory continue to increase. Just this alone is enough to overwhelm the British Empire. There is still a way to solve this problem! "
Although this statement sounded strange, it did make some sense. The huge population of industrialized China was a headache for the British. How could they resist such a terrible army?
The senator on the stage continued in high spirits, "The way now is to destroy the United States and move most of the British population to North America. With current technology, we are about to build a large fleet that can cross the Atlantic Ocean. The United States is vast and was once a British colony. After turning North America into our new homeland, our population can increase to 100 million or more in less than 20 years. At that time, we will have enough manpower to compete with any country. This! This is the real future of the British Empire! "
In theory, this idea was feasible. The reason why the United Kingdom did not attack the United States during the American Civil War was that the South was too strange. The American South thought that they could choke the British with cotton, and they thought that they could defeat the United Kingdom by force alone. Another reason was that Britain did not have ironclad warships that could cross the Atlantic Ocean. Sailing warships were at a huge disadvantage against ironclad warships.
Now, after the war with China, Britain opened up its mind and managed to copy the new fuse. The detonation rate of the explosive bomb was greatly increased. As long as the new fleet was completed, Britain would once again have an overwhelming advantage over the American navy. Moreover, the United States was vast, sparsely populated, and rich in resources. If they could really take over the United States, Britain would put its territory in the United States. The subjects of the British Empire would be able to have children. After the population increased, the British Empire could still maintain the native population of Britain.
As for the plan to destroy the United States, Britain had seriously studied it many times and there was no lack of various plans. In addition to the problem of military technology, Britain also completely lacked the determination to treat North America as the homeland of the British Empire. Now that a senator proposed such a crazy plan, the British Parliament members were really excited.
With the first two paragraphs that were quite impactful, the following statements were not so impactful. The issues these two talked about were trying to transform Britain. Britain was facing many problems now, and the population problem was undoubtedly one of them. The British mainland was only so big, and the rest of the land was divided into England, Scotland, and Ireland. If all the bards who inherited the Welsh culture hadn't been killed hundreds of years ago, Wales would probably be able to survive until now.
China had a large population and a unified culture, while the United States was a vast country of immigrants. Both countries had advantages that Britain did not have. But now, Britain was unwilling to make changes and only hoped to stay at the peak of the world's hegemon forever. At least some of the British Parliament members felt that they were very uneasy.
After all, Britain was Britain. In the following period of time, plans to annex the United States were gradually increasing. In fact, there was no need to completely annex the United States. The initial strategic goal could be to take over the developed areas on the East Coast and seize the Great Lakes industrial area. If this goal could be achieved, Britain's overall strength would increase by a large chunk, or even double.
These plans were not difficult, but what would happen after that? The independence of the United States was because a group of unscrupulous merchants in the British colonies refused to pay taxes and colluded with the French to carry out a major rebellion. If it was just immigration, it was likely to repeat the same mistake in the future. The best way was really to treat North America as the homeland of Britain. The royal family, the army, the industry, these key personnel, would move to North America. Some capable and reliable people would continue to run Britain and maintain the balance of power in Europe. Britain would take decades to completely digest North America. If this goal could be achieved, Britain's future would be bright.
The problem was that this was no longer a gamble on the fate of the country, but to completely change the nature of Britain. No matter how beneficial and feasible the plan seemed. But to transform a European country into an American country, the final feeling of the British upper echelons was that it was "too ridiculous"!
What's more, the price of this war was very high, and there was also the possibility of defeat. If they had to do this, Britain might as well move the capital to India, at least it could save the cost of war. The cost of war was a lot of money.
It was already June when Vézé heard the news, and he finally agreed to let his eldest son, Wei Rui, apply for military school. Even though he was not happy, Vézé couldn't help but laugh when he saw the news. No wonder the United States made naval plans to wipe out the British Royal Navy before World War II. It seemed that the British had not given up on the idea of wiping out the United States, and the United States was most wary of the British Royal Navy.
According to the news that China received, this plan was shelved, which made Vézé feel a little regretful. Based on Vézé's understanding, if the United Kingdom could really make such a decision, it might really be possible for Britain to rise from the ashes. At this stage, if the United Kingdom was willing to make huge concessions in Northwest America, Vézé was really willing to help the United Kingdom. A North American Britain, Vézé wanted to see what kind of development such a history would lead to.
Of course, this kind of thing was just a thought, the self-identity of a country could not be so easily changed. Not to mention in this era where Europe was widely believed to be more advanced than North America. It was impossible for the noble British to lower themselves to go to the desolate and backward North America.
"It seems that when a country is in decline, there are always some wise people who have insightful views," Vézé said to Lei Hu.
For the time being, Lei Hu could not understand the meaning of Vézé's words. The reason he came here was to ask on behalf of the principal of the Nanjing Military Academy how to deal with Vézé's eldest son, Wei Rui, joining the army. The principal of the Military Academy was so scared that he did not dare to personally ask Vézé's opinion.
Sighing at his son, Vézé could only sigh, "Wei Rui will change his name to Qi Rui for now. As for the rest, go to school and be a soldier. I don't want others to know his identity at all. "
When Lei Hu heard that Vézé even wanted to change his son's surname, he could not help but sigh at Vézé's painstaking efforts. In a place like the military academy, it was not necessarily a good thing to be famous outside of academics. As the eldest son of Vézé, this identity was a heavy burden for Wei Rui. People who were kind to Wei Rui would stay away from him because of his identity, and people who were malicious to Wei Rui would use Wei Rui's identity. Wei Rui was still a child, he would not understand that there were too many malicious intentions in the world.
"Commander-in-chief, I will definitely keep Wei Rui's identity a secret. Right now, he is just an ordinary military academy cadet called Qi Rui," Lei Hu said seriously to Vézé.
"Thank you for your hard work." Vézé could only express his gratitude to Lei Hu. Other than that, he really did not know what else to say about his son.
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